For years, Overbrook activist Mary Tracy has been beating billboard companies in court, and politicians have tried to put her out of business by eliminating her group's standing to challenge zoning decisions.
When such moves arose in City Council and the state Legislature in the past, Tracy always managed to rally community groups and defeat them.
But in Harrisburg, laws can change without a hearing, or even public notice.
On Friday, an amendment by state Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Thompson cut Tracy's legal legs from under her by changing state law to prevent citywide interest groups from challenging a Philadelphia zoning decision in court.
"There was no hearing, no notice, nothing," Tracy said yesterday, stunned to learn the measure quickly passed in the crush at the end of the legislative session.
"It's unconscionable that our elected representatives would participate in such a blatant abuse of their legislative powers," Tracy said.
The measure now goes to Gov. Rendell, who said through a spokesman he will give it "due consideration."
As often happens when legislative lightning strikes in the Capitol, it's hard to tell who was really behind the move.
Thompson, a West Chester Republican, didn't return a call for comment.
Spokeswoman Beth Williams said House Speaker John Perzel, who favored the controversial change in the past, wasn't involved "to my knowledge."
Senate Republican aides didn't return calls seeking an explanation.
A spokesman for state Sen. Vince Fumo, whose ally, City Councilman Frank DiCicco, pursed the same change in Philadelphia, said Fumo wasn't involved and voted against the change in committee.
The Thompson amendment was added to a House bill introduced months before to raise the maximum fine Philadelphia can impose from $300 to $2,300.
Tracy's group, Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB) has tormented billboard companies by suing to enforce a 1991 city ordinance that places severe restrictions on new outdoor advertising.
Under the new law, only a property owner directly affected by a zoning decision could challenge it in court. In the past, any taxpayer could sue.
While billboard companies and even city officials have sometimes argued that the city restrictions on billboards are unreasonable, a Commonwealth Court panel recently wrote that they do "embody the public policy of Philadelphia regarding outdoor advertising signs."